Run a Calcutta With Your Phone
The organizer's one-pager — rodeo, roping, stock show, or scramble. Print it or keep it open in the truck. The math happens automatically at calcuttacalc.com; you just run the room.
Before the event (10 minutes)
- Open calcuttacalc.com on your phone → Host an auction → name the event.
- Enter the lots (teams, ropers, foursomes) as the draw firms up — you can edit all night.
- Set the payout split under Setup: 50/30/20 is the classic; 60/30/10 rewards the favorite; winner-take-all makes a loud room.
- House rules (all optional, all off by default): a cut off the top for the arena or charity, a last-place consolation, a minimum bid.
- Check your state's rules on calcuttas — they genuinely vary. If the event benefits a club or charity, they usually already know. (Our plain-English explainer: calcuttacalc.com/guides/is-a-calcutta-legal)
Auction night — the script
- Go live in the app. It gives you a 6-letter code and a QR — put it on a wall or read it from the mic: "Scan to watch your tab live."
- Everyone who's bidding joins from their own phone: solo, start a syndicate, or pledge into one. Pooled pledges become that syndicate's bid budget — the app won't let anyone bid past their pool, so nobody writes a check their partners didn't agree to.
- Call the lots. Open cheap lots first to warm the room; save the favorites for last. Hammer each sale in the app — two taps: lot, buyer, price.
- Scratched team? Mark it scratched; its sales void cleanly.
After the results
- Enter the placings. Done — the app shows the pot, each place's payout, and who owes what / who collects what, split pro-rata inside every syndicate.
- Settle up face to face like always. CalcuttaCalc never touches money — it's the scorekeeper, not the bank.
Why rooms like it: no napkin math at midnight, no "wait, who was in on that team?", no spreadsheet cowboy in the corner. Everyone watches their own stake live from the bleachers, and the settle-up sheet ends every argument before it starts.
CalcuttaCalc is free (ad-supported; $5/yr hides ads). It cannot take, hold, move, or pay out money — by design. Whatever stakes exist live entirely between you and your room, offline. Participants 21+. If gambling stops being fun: 1-800-GAMBLER.
© 2026 CalcuttaCalc, a product of CUEtv LLC · calcuttacalc.com